


Stage Left

by Cinnamonbookworm



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Theater AU, in which cisco is directing a modernized cinderella with felicity, in which every single theater au cliche is present, in which oliver and laurel used to date and are cast as love interests, in which oliver and nyssa go head to head for the roles of prince charming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-05
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-02 23:36:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4078153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinnamonbookworm/pseuds/Cinnamonbookworm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity and Cisco started the Star Labs "get it? Because we make stars!" Theater Company back when they were fresh out of college, but now it's grown to have quite a reputation. When Felicity finds former theater mogul Oliver Queen at a local company, she convinces him to join their production of Cinderella, where he makes an an enemy of Nyssa and gets cast as the love interest opposite Laurel Lance, his high school ex-girlfriend. Chaos ensues. Based on a list of au prompts from tumblr.<br/>act i scene i: <i>i’ve seen this play about thirty times and you were my favorite character and you did it so beautifully i just had to tell you at stage door oh wait wow you’re attractive</i>- oliver x felicity</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stage Left

**Author's Note:**

> i already have three wip’s right now but why not add another one to the pile, especially since this will mostly be a collection of drabbles based on this post
> 
> also i’m a giant theater geek, been in 15 stage shows and seen more than i can count, not to mention 1 on broadway and 3 as broadway touring, the most recent of which was the updated version of cinderella, so i know what i’m talking about here and also may make obscure references to shows that are not quite as popular as cinderella and les mis so be warned

So Felicity’s  _not_  supposed to be looking for new talent. And that’s not what she’s doing, right? A girl can go see some shows done by other theater companies even when she just happens to be the casting director for her best friend’s new show. It’s not like she’s looking for more people to audition.

And she wasn’t.

And she doesn’t even really  _like_  the musical version of Rocky, despite the fact she was the stage manager for the said show a few years back, but the number she’s currently watching has her on the edge of her seat and her breath caught in her chest because Rocky’s voice is  _beautiful._  And that doesn’t even touch on how beautiful the actor himself is.

Somehow he’s carrying “Happiness” all by himself, because the girl playing Adrian is singing flat half the time, and Felicity has the sneaking suspicion that she was only cast because of her striking resemblance to the director, and the kissing looks extremely awkward, even more so than the usual stage kiss, but he’s pulling it off anyways. She might be in love.

 _“Something like truth.”_   Has her fumbling in the dark to try and find his name on the program because she needs to get him to audition for Cisco’s show. Needs it like she needs air and also like she needs the show to be over as soon as possible so she can march up to the stage door and get him to.

She lights up her phone quickly and then, ignoring the few glares from the other patrons around her, finds his name on the program:  _Oliver Queen._

And then she nearly drops her phone. Because she’s  _heard_ about Oliver Queen before. Laurel, one of the regulars over at Star Labs (the name of which Cisco had thought was  _hilarious_ , because “get it Felicity? We make stars here!” when they’d first been putting the company together back when they were still just Dr. Wells’ interns with a passion for knowledge and a flair for theater on the side), had told her all about him. Her old highschool boyfriend who’d gone to some elite theatre school he would only ever refer to as “the Island.” The guy who once single-handedly carried the entire  _Grovel_ scene in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when one of the prop guys forgot the golden cup and the rest of the cast was trying not to erupt into stitches. The guy who once did a one-man rendition of “One Day More” and made it sound  _good_. The guy who seemed destined for greatness before falling off the grid for over ten years. The guy who definitely should  _not_  be stuck doing community theatre in Starling City.

Oh, Laurel’s gonna get a kick out of this.

The house lights go up and Felicity runs to the stage door. She’s almost stopped by crew members, but Ray Palmer, her ex-boyfriend-turned-friend who’s the stage manager for this show, lets her pass, and she barely even notices the door opening before something runs straight into her. Someone.

Oliver Queen gazes down at her, looking kind of like Apollo as the stage lights give him a sort of halo. She is so screwed.

“Wow, you did not seem this big from the audience.” And then he smirks. And she totally did  _not_ mean to say that out loud. “And by that I mean you’re really tall. Not anything else. Although why you would think I was talking about anything else I have no idea. And I’m stopping. In 3-2-1. Hi.” She turns off the babble and turns on the casting-director charm, extending her arm to the actor she just ran into. “Felicity Smoak. I just had to say, that was one of the  _best_ performances of Rocky I’ve seen in a while. What do I have to do to convince you to audition for Star Labs’ production of Cinderella?”

“Well, I’m flattered, really,” he responds, shaking her hand “But I’m not really into fairy tales. And this was supposed to be my last show. Really, I was only doing it as a favor for Palmer.”

“No, no, you don’t understand. My friend Cisco got permission to rewrite some of the script and now it’s much more modernized and feminist and it’s going to be  _amazing_.” She can feel her eyes start to light up as she goes on a tangent about how great Cisco’s new interpretation is, but he doesn’t seem to mind. And it might be her imagination, but his smile seems to be getting wider as she trails on. “Also, I’m sure Laurel Lance would be  _ecstatic_  to see you again.”

The way his face lights up when she says Laurel’s name kind of kills her heart a little bit - ridiculous, she knows, because she’s only just met the guy, but it does nevertheless. Still, she holds her smile steady, and tries not to get butterflies in her stomach as he looks directly down at her with unreadable and deep blue eyes as he responds. “I’ll think about it.”

“Looking forward to working with you.” She throws over her shoulder as she walks away from him.

“I never said yes.” He banters back, and she tries to ignore the way it makes her heart pound in her chest as she dials Laurel’s number.

“You’ll never guess who I ran into today.” 


End file.
